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Interview: Abbey Death - Interview January 2019

Abbey Death is a gothrock and industrial hybrid who've had their fair share of coverage on Brutal Resonance; Valerie Abbey had her then solo project Valerie Gentile's album "Love Is Luxury/a
Abbey Death is a gothrock and industrial hybrid who've had their fair share of coverage on Brutal Resonance; Valerie Abbey had her then solo project Valerie Gentile's album "Love Is Luxury" reviewed, Abbey Nex had his solo project's album "Zondustrial" reviewed, and we've given Valerie Abbey a solo interview. However, when the two merged together in Abbey Death, we never sat down to chat with them about the project. This changes today as we dive deep into their newest EP "ETHOS", as well as future prospects for the band, the occult, and aliens! Be sure to watch their special unplugged session of 'Trance' off of their new EP which can be ordered HERE.

Hello and welcome to the site! It’s lovely to have the both of you on here with us today. We’re going to be discussing a lot of things throughout this interview. Before we get to all that, how have things been with you? I saw that you guys just got done touring and released an EP back in November.

Valerie: We’re doing great! We went on tour with Ego Likeness on their Dead Cities Tour. While on tour we released "ETHOS" our second EP. Which is only available on Bandcamp at this time.

Abbey Nex: Hello! Thank you, it’s lovely to be here. We have been doing very well and happy to be busy with the band. We just finished a great tour with Ego Likeness. Now that we are home, we still have a lot of work to do for 2019. The tour was motivating for me, and now we are excited to get a full length release out in the Spring as well as give a song off of our last EP a music video. 

Let’s just dive right into the EP “ETHOS”. This EP seems to feature a more Goth-tinged approach in comparison to the heavy noisy industrial rock featured on your 2016 EP “Realignment”. How did you guys go about recording “ETHOS”? What was your thought process behind the album?

Abbey Nex: We hit the studio with a blank slate. For this EP, I would still call it Goth-Rock/Industrial, but it’s definitely not as dirty as the last EP. I’m not doing any yelling. Haha. 'Fake Walls' and 'Lost is Fine for Now' were done with more synths whereas 'Trance' & 'The Veil' were done more-so with guitars.  The thought process was to emphasize what makes our band unique and spend time on the quality of the recordings. While also writing songs that make sense playing live. This is still the beginning to me, as we evolve with our song progression. 

Does “ETHOS” have an overall theme to it? Or do each of the songs tell their own story?

Valerie: If there’s a theme to "ETHOS", it’s about being/ finding yourself while respecting free will of others.

Abbey Nex: I would say it’s an overall theme of occulted subject matter. I’m always contemplating possible deeper truths, weird shit, and “reality”. So no doubt it sinks into the songwriting. There aren’t any stories on the EP, just maybe food for thought.  

You were able to work with Sevin VII and Andy Mattina on the songs ‘The Veil’ and ‘Trance’ respectively. What was it like working with these two musicians? What did they add to the songs?

Abbey Nex: 'The Veil' was written a year ago. Val and I thought it would be a great to collaborate with Sevin, and after he agreed we were sending files.  Each of us wrote lyrics for our own parts. In 2017, we went to Detroit on a tour with Ayria and Inertia. This is where we hung out with Sevin and made the music video for 'The Veil'. We had a blast! 'Trance' is a song we wrote on guitar. Once the song came together, we felt like the bass part needed new blood. Valerie knew immediately she wanted to ask her  highly seasoned comrade, Andy Mattina, to crunch a killer bass line. Val engineered the sessions with him. 'Trance' is personally one of my favorite new songs of ours. 

I saw that you are going to be playing Dark Side of the Con 3 in NJ in March. What type of event is that? Will you be playing strictly Abbey Death material or will you also be playing older material as well?

Valerie: Dark Side of the Con is a 3 day annual goth culture convention in its third year. It’s a lot of fun! There’s always a band or fun panel going on followed by dances and there are great vendors to visit. Everyone says hello to you! Abbey Death will be doing an Abbey Death set. We always throw at least one song in our set from an older release. We haven’t gotten away from that yet. But songs like 'Scarred' from the "Love is Luxury" EP and 'Comprehension' off the Zondustrial album are crowd pleasers and we still have a lot of fun playing those tracks.

Abbey Nex: I would like to play as much newer material as possible, but we feel out the set and see how it flows. Dark Side of the Con was founded by Jet, the founder of Vampire Freaks, and has grown to three years now.  We played last year. I couldn’t believe how many people I saw from all over. It was great. I foresee this convention being ongoing for awhile. The venue and bands have gotten bigger and better. The panels and vendors are getting more interesting.  We are happy to be playing March 2019!

Valerie, you also told me that you will be doing your Goth Hangover Yoga at the convention as well? What is that?

Valerie: I’ll be hosting the Dark Side Awakens Morning Yoga. It’s scheduled the morning of the last day of the convention. After 2 days of straight partying, its a great to stretch and do some breathes before you take on that third day of convention.  Its just under an hour. Studies shows that breath work and yoga clears up hang overs, inflammation and congestion. After the session you can really feel the difference and party as usual. It’s like hitting the reset button. Plus we listen to fun goth jams and get to know each other by partnering up and stretching together.

Lastly, in news of Dark Side of the Con, you will be releasing an album at the event. Can we get any details about the new album? Title, tracklist, etc?

Valerie: We’re using Dark Side of the Con as an excuse to release a full length album out to an audience. We’ll be able to tell more people about it in a short amount of time in person. Just putting an album up on online and posting about it sometimes isn’t enough to spread the word. The official name for the album is “Inegrum”.

You will be focusing on ‘Trance’ off the EP as your next single as well. You’ve told us that it will be accompanied by a music video, but will you be releasing this as a standalone single with remixes attached or anything similar?

Valerie: We just did a some what unplugged video for 'Trance' with a photographer we often work with d. yee. We’d love to make an official video for it. We are writing up some ideas for it. It’s just going to take a little more time. But for now we’re releasing this fun live video which is worth checking out if you dig the noise. 

I know we have covered a lot for the future, but do you have any additional plans for the band? Any other shows, gigs, etc. upcoming?

Valerie: We’re having an album release show April 26th, 2019 at Stimulate in NYC. Xris Smack is one of our favorite promoters and has been since the beginning of both our careers. We’re really honored be able to have an album release party on a Friday night in NYC at Stimulate. It’s going to be a pretty awesome.

Abbey Nex: I’m more focused on getting a full length album out with the necessary tricks of the trade. Shows and promo are inevitable. I would like to keep the positive momentum in making sure our album and our show is as tight as can be.  There’s never enough practice to compensate for a live show, and the only way to fuel the beast is to keep writing. 

And now let’s talk about some fun stuff. Aliens. Do they exist? Yay or nay? Are you an alien?

Abbey Nex: Yay! I feel that it’s entirely possible there are physical E.T.’s and non-physical “higher dimensional beings”. There are implications to consider about the subject.  I sometimes joke with the idea that I could come from an ancient race of Nordic giant E.T.’s.    

Valerie: I’ve just always had a tin foil hat on. I blame my grandmother. The conspiracy theories she told me as a child in the 80s still seem to be told and are still in question today. I’m not an extraterrestrial, however I’m down to meet some.

And about the occult, do you believe in witchcraft? Do you find occult ideologies in your music?

Valerie: Occult just means hidden in Latin in very simple terms. So sure, the occult is out there. In the government, religion, your mind. Everyone has hidden beliefs on how the universe and humans were created. Not everything has been proven, and we are constantly finding discoveries to alter the previous discoveries. I think to believe in witchcraft you probably practice it. I don’t practice it at all but I’ll read an article about it every once in a while. I do believe in the power of intent and free will. Strong stuff. Everyone has unlimited power of the mind. I believe ancient civilizations and elites of the world believe in this as well, and do their best to create a world in which you must struggle in. The answer is love and to laugh at the odds.

Abbey Nex: Many of reality's boundaries have been discovered, measured, and contemplated on through history and to this very day. Humanities best knowledge and wisdom is either kept secret and/or nobody is paying attention to the obvious signs.  So much of our Earth’s history has been lost or undiscovered. Society has very real deep roots that play a huge hand in how our world appears to us. Also, there are well documented cases of how playable or thin the veil can get. Everything from ESP, Telekinesis, to unexplained phenomena and “glitches in the matrix”. I cannot go a day without silently questioning this existence. 

Lastly, I would like to thank you for your time. I wish you the best of luck with Abbey Death and leave the space below for any final words.

Valerie: Thank you so much for having us again and for supporting us thru the years with a platform to get music out in the world! Hope you enjoy the new tunes!

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